News Release
Contact: Roxanne St. Claire
Hill and Knowlton, Inc.
Advanced Technology Division
(617) 894-3100
For Immediate Release
258-144/3588b
SYMBOLICS ANNOUNCES THE FIRST TRUE SINGLE-CHIP LISP CPU
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 19 -- Symbolics, Inc. today announced the computer
industry's first single-chip implementation of a symbolic processor for use in
commercial applications of artificial intelligence. The new chip, called Ivory,
is tailored for the rapid execution of Lisp (List Processing language), the most
commonly used computer language for artificial intelligence and other advanced
symbolic computing applications.
Unlike current multi-board processors, a complete Lisp computer can now
comprise simply the Ivory chip and a few memory and interface chips, all on one
card.
Ivory will initially provide three times the performance of existing
Symbolics technology. Performance will reach five times the current speed as
smaller geometry semiconductor fabrication technology is used to implement the
chip. The Ivory architecture provides software source-compatible paths to
higher performance symbolic processing solutions and embeddable delivery
platforms.
Symbolics anticipates that the Ivory technology will be incorporated
into the company's product line by the second half of 1988. The Ivory-based
technology will continue Symbolics' commitment to support industry standards and
be fully compatible with existing computing environments.
According to Russell Noftsker, Symbolics' chairman and chief executive
officer, negotiations are currently under way between Symbolics and several OEMs
interested in utilizing the Ivory chip.
"Three main groups have expressed keen interest," said Noftsker. "The
first is Department of Defense contractors who want to use Ivory as an embedded
delivery platform for applications developed on Symbolics systems."
The second group is commercial vendors who want to add a Symbolic
co-processor to their product offering. And the third is system integrators in
various vertical markets who want to embed their next-generation products within
an Ivory-based Symbolics product."
In addition to traditional AI research and development, Ivory will make
possible a wider range of application products in such industries as financial,
medical, chemical and aerospace. Ivory will also allow developers to solve
larger, more complex AI problems than have previously been possible.
"Mainstream commercial users have anticipated the processing power and
economy of VLSI technology applied to symbolic processing," said Noftsker.
"Soon they will begin to realize those advantages."
In addition to Lisp, Symbolics will support standard computer languages
on Ivory including FORTRAN-77, Ada, Prolog and Pascal.
Design Integrates 40-bit Architecture on Single Chip
Ivory packs the industry's most powerful Lisp processing technology onto
a single two-micron CMOS VLSI chip. The single chip provides lower cost,
increased reliability and higher performance than current board-level
processors.
Ivory features a proprietary 40-bit tagged architecture optimized to
provide high-speed Lisp performance in a small board area, while increasing the
virtual address space required for larger applications to 128 times that of the
closest symbolic processing competitor.
"With its superior architecture, Ivory will be a performance leader in
the market. Its architecture and VLSI layout process are designed to take
advantage of future higher performance fabrication processes," said Neil Weste,
director of Symbolics' VLSI systems group.
In order to relieve typical performance bottlenecks associated with
first-generation TTL Lisp machine architectures and current-generation
microprocessors, the Ivory architects turned to a third-generation Lisp
architecture optimized for VLSI implementation.
Ivory technical design features include:
* 40-bit word length, which allows for a standard 32-bit
address/data field and a full 8-bit tag field;
* On-chip functions including microcode ROM, instruction and
stack caches, virtual memory management, garbage collection
support and memory error checking and correction (ECC);
* Support for fast Common Lisp function calls, fast message
dispatch, vector instructions, memory interleaving and fast
interfaces to commercial graphics and floating point
co-processors;
* Four-stage parallel pipeline operations that expedite the
processing of large Lisp applications;
Ivory a Product of Symbolics Systems
The Ivory chip was developed from architecture to silicon over a
12-month period using a set of highly integrated VLSI design tools based on
Symbolics hardware and software. The design system, called NS, integrates all
of the tools required to design complex full-custom chips in a single, unified
environment.
Weste said that the Ivory chip does more than point to the future of
symbolic computing. Through the development of NS, Ivory also demonstrates what
a high-peformance symbolic computing environment can do for productivity. The
complete design team of 12 people included architects, tool and integrated
circuit designers and management.
For additional details on specific Ivory features, as well as market and
company information, please see attached backgrounders.
Symbolics hardware and software systems are used in government,
commercial and research markets, with more than 3,500 systems in use at more
than 500 customer sites worldwide. For its fiscal year ended June 30, 1986,
Symbolics had revenue of $114.2 million.
-0-
1987
Symbolics, Symbolics 3600 and Ivory are trademarks of Symbolics, Inc.
Ada is a trademark of the Department of Defense.
Symbolics
Eleven Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142